Last night, Bob Dylan’s European tour continued at Goteborg, Sweden’s Scandinavium. Following an unexpectedly impactful summer run that saw guitarists Bob Britt and Doug Lancio both depart Dylan’s band mid-tour in June, fellow guitarist Joel Paterson assume a steady post in the ensemble and Julian Lage and Jad Tariq swap in on select, sometimes non-consecutive dates, The Bard has brought in guitarist Mike Seal for his current outing. Seal, whose credits include work with Jerry Douglas, John Hiatt, Sierra Hull, the Jeff Sipe Trio and the Jeff Coffin Mu’tet, rounds out a combo that currently features Paterson, longtime Dylan bassist Tony Garnier and drummer Anton Fig.
On the European jaunt’s opening night in Oslo on Saturday, Dylan had a few other surprises in store, busting out “Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)” for the first time since October 20, 2005, and “Tangled Up in Blue,” complete with two extra versus, for the first time since August 28, 2018, and debuting covers of Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927” and Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues.” While Dylan has stuck to a stock setlist for extended periods while on the road in recent years, he seems excited to switch things up these days and offered a number of surprise selections yesterday.
After kicking things off with “To Be Alone With You” and “Man in the Long Black Coat,” his regular introductory sequence, he mixed in a handful of new cuts during the show, including his first version of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan classic “Girl From the North Country” since December 8, 2019, and his first “Spirit on the Water,” from Modern Times, since August 9, 2024. A number of other tunes were played for the first time on the European run as well at various points during Dylan’s Goteborg concert, such as “Every Grain of Sand,” “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” “False Prophet” and “Black Rider.”
Dylan’s tour rolls on to Horsens, Denmark’s Forum Horsens tomorrow.
